... The last two proclamations--about the Siberian railway and the
exiles--pleased me very much. The Siberian railway is called a national
concern, and the tone of the proclamation guarantees its speedy completion;
and convicts who have completed such and such terms as settlers are allowed
to return to Russia without the right to live in the provinces of
Petersburg and Moscow. The newspapers have let this pass unnoticed, and yet
it is something which has never been in Russia before--it is the first step
towards abolishing the life sentence which has so long weighed on the
public conscience as unjust and cruel in the extreme....




BOGIMOVO,
May 27, 4 o'clock in the Morning.


The mongoose has run away into the woods and has not come back. It is cold.
I have no money. But nevertheless, I don't envy you. One cannot live in
town now, it is both dreary and unwholesome. I should like you to be
sitting from morning till dinner-time in this verandah, drinking tea and
writing something artistic, a play or something; and after dinner till
evening, fishing and thinking peaceful thoughts. You have long ago earned
the right which is denied you now by all sorts of chance circumstances, and
it seems to me shameful and unjust that I should live more peacefully than
you. Is it possible that you will stay all June in town? It's really
terrible....

... By the way, read Grigorovitch's letter to my enemy Anna Ivanovna. Let